


Learning To Fly

by Cubrey



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 21:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16605563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cubrey/pseuds/Cubrey
Summary: A one shot on Eiji's past as pole vaulter, his injury and how Ibe convinced his parents to let him go to New York.This one shot is set between Fly Boy In The Sky and the actual plot of Banana Fish.





	Learning To Fly

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I am not well informed when it comes to pole vaulting or athletics in general. I did some google research, still not everything might be reasonable. If you have more knowledge than I do, feel free to correct me :)

He takes a deep breath, holding the fiberglass pole in his hands, staring at the 5.02 meter high bar, he never jumped higher than that, if he makes it he has a new personal best, another deep breath. He feels the visitors' eyes on him, he knows what they are thinking. His mother believes in him, his coach expects him to make it but most of the viewers are sure that he is too small to jump such heights. He feels Ibe-san's finger on the trigger, he even feels Ibe-san's pressure to catch  _the_ shot. One final breath until he starts running towards the planting box. He does not know how often he ran those 50 meters in his life. When he started school his P.E. teacher saw his talent in athletics, then when he was nine years old his coach recommended him to try pole vaulting, despite the fact that he was much smaller than the other boys his age. But in fact, Eiji Okumura has that special something when it comes to pole vaulting and sooner or later the people knew him as the smallest pole vaulter of Izumo or even whole Shimane. Since then he won numerous of regional championships and even made it to the national student championships in the last four years but always ended up being second. Today are the nationals for uni students and Eiji Okumura has come surprisingly far, his chances to win a medal are not too bad. Eiji lifts his body up into the air and flies over the bar. That short moment of flying is what he loves about pole vaulting, those few seconds where he feels weightless are what the lives for. The bar still lays on the uprights, that is a new personal best. 

 

However, that feeling of weightlessness ends as soon as he lands on the mat. A short moment, not even a second, before he would fall on it, he knew that something was strange and he was right. Instead of landing on his back, he fell onto his left ankle. He feels a little pain, as if something was teared but his adrenaline was too much and so he stands up again and walks to his coach. "Are you okay?" he wonders. But Eiji just smiles the pain away because he just scored a new personal best. "Do you think you can continue?" Eiji nods, takes the pole and walks back to the approach. Then everything is just like before but now the crossbar lays at a height of 5.07 meters. Actually Eiji is too short to be physically able to jump it but he always proofed the physics wrong. After one more deep breath he starts running to the planting box again, it is just 50 meters until he will fly again. But only a few meters before the box the pain in his left ankle kicks in, it is so heavy that he cannot take it. The fiberglass pole slides out of his hands and he crashes onto the floor. As the audience sees the 18 year old laying on the ground they start whispering but Eiji cannot hear them, not even his coach who runs up to him and asks him what is wrong. All he feels is the pain. "Okumura! Okumura!" his coach shouts but Eiji still cannot hear him. Two paramedic come to the injured and lift him on a stretcher to bring him to the ambulance.  

 

The first thing Eiji hears again are the words "He has torn his Achilles tendon. He needs surgery." spoken by a doctor.  _Achilles tendon. Surgery._ That does not sound too good in the ears of an athlete. Eiji sits up, he sees his mother, his coach, Ibe-san, a man in a white coat and three nurses and everyone gives him concerned looks. This was serious and then his coach asks the five magical words: "When can he jump again?". The doctor looks at the X-ray and then inhales. "I'm afraid he will never-" "That's enough!" Eiji interrupts the medic. He knows how the sentence will end, everyone knows that. Eiji will never jump again but when nobody speaks it out it at least feels like there was a small chance that he will be back again one day. "So when is the surgery?" his mother asks and breaks the awkward silence. "Tomorrow." the doctor answers and as soon as he says that his mother begins to look very sorry. Eiji knows this look far too well, his mother always has this expression when she is about to tell him that she has to miss something important. He saw this look when he had his first regional championship where he won, when he jumped his first nationals and even on the day he graduated from high school. "I'm sorry Ei-chan, I have to go back home today, I can't miss work tomorrow and then your sister and me are going to visit your father in hospital." she apologizes. Big eyes stare at her and for a second she thinks that this time her son will not be okay with her leaving him but then he pulls a little smile and says: "Okay."

 

The next morning Eiji wakes up in a hospital room all on his own. A couple of hours pass until a nurse opens the door to bring him to the operating theater. A few moments before the anesthesia kicks in he thinks about if there will anyone be waiting for him when he wakes up. But his mother is at work, his sister at school, his grandma will not take such a long journey and his dad is in hospital himself. But then when he wakes up there is someone sitting next to his bed. It is Ibe-san the photographer he met when he was still in high school. "How are you feeling?" Ibe-san wonders. Eiji looks dizzy and then he replies with a cracking voice: "I'm tired.". Ibe-san smiles at the boy and stays by his side until the visit time is over.  He does so every day no matter the ups and downs, the tiredness, the random crying because of pain or because of the fact that his athletic career is over. Then one day, after one and a half weeks spent in hospital Eiji is sent home and Ibe-san drives him back to Izumo because none of Eiji's family could come to pick him up. Eiji gets out of the car, takes the crutches and takes once more a deep breath. The surgery was only the first part of fighting back, he realized that by now. There is a long way of physical therapy ahead of him until he will be able to walk again. 

 

As the weeks pass, Eiji is making good progress and can walk without any support after only six weeks. Still he is frustrated because more and more orthopedists told him that it is highly unlikely to make a comeback as pole vaulter. And even if he can try again he still has to wait at least a year until his tendon is fully healed. Eiji spends most of the time in his room when he is not at university. He lays on his bed and stares at the ceiling unable and unwilling to do anything else. Ibe-san asks him every now and then if he wants to join him when he takes pictures but Eiji always turns the offer down. After all Eiji knows Ibe-san because of pole vaulting and athletics is the last thing Eiji wants to think about right now. Then one day Eiji's mother comes into his room and holds a letter in her hand. "Ei-chan, your scholarship got cancelled. You'll be ex-matriculated because we can't pay the fees. I'm sorry..." Eiji's eyes are again glued to the ceiling. He is studying pedagogy and P.E., well he was until now. Not that he will become a P.E. teacher with that injury anyways... Eiji could not care less. 

 

After Eiji received that letter he spent even more hours laying in bed and staring at the ceiling. His family and Ibe-san became really worried about Eiji who always used to be so positive and full of energy. There is nothing much left of that boy today. Ibe-san has seen enough. Eiji did not leave the house in three months. "Ei-chan." the photographer says. The boy turns his head away from the ceiling and faces the man who sits at his desk. "You know what day it is?" Ibe-san asks with a smile on his face. Eiji shrugs his shoulders. In fact he neither knows the day of the week nor the date. "Today is the day you can try athletics again. Shall I take you to the stadium?" he suggests and suddenly Eiji's mood lightens up. He quickly grabs his athletic clothes and runs downstairs. When they arrive at the stadium Eiji immediately begins to warm up and once he finished it he takes a fiberglass pole and walks to the approach. He takes a deep breath, as always, he faces the bar, as always, he tries not think about the injury, one last deep breath and then he starts running. Ibe-san is ready to capture the moment of Izumo's smallest pole vaulter's comeback but Eiji stops a few meters away from the planting box. The boy shakes his head. "What's wrong?" Ibe-san asks. "I can't. It hurts too much." he replies. They sit down on a bench and Ibe-san goes through his pictures. Eiji peeks at the photos Ibe-san took today. One can easily tell the moment the pain kicked in again. "How do you do that?" Eiji wonders. Ibe-san feels two big eyes staring at him. "How do I do what?" he asks. "How do you capture both, the body and the face?". Ibe-san then starts to explain Eiji all kinds of techniques and equipment. That was the day Eiji became interested in photography. 

 

Ibe-san gave him one of his cameras that he is not using anymore so Eiji can practice if he wants. Even though Eiji still feels depressed about pole vaulting, he now leaves his room every now and then to take some photos. Eventually Ibe-san receives an offer from a magazine to take pictures of gangs in New York. To distract Eiji from his daily routine of laying in bed, staring at the ceiling and perhaps taking a few shots he invites him to join him on his trip. And when Ibe-san tells the Okumura family about his plan, Eiji's mother turns down the offer. Letting her son go all the way to America is something she cannot imagine, something she will not allow. She wants her son to stay at home to focus on his future. "But what do you think is he going to do here? He has no perspective, no plans." Ibe-san adds. Although Eiji's mother knows that Ibe-san is righ she is till against it. "Come on, it won't be long and nothing bad will happen. I just want to distract Ei-chan from his frustration. He'll be safe with me." the photographer concludes. Four days have passed when Eiji's mother takes out her son's suitcase and says: "Fine, you can go."             

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second Banana Fish HC one shot, if there are any more stories you'd like to read, just leave me a comment. :)


End file.
